Congress leader in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge has been renominated from Karnataka's Gulbarga. (FILE)
Highlights
- Congress released its eighth list of 38 candidates for the upcoming polls
- Mallikarjun Kharge has been renominated from Karnataka's Gulbarga seat
- It fielded ex-Uttarakhand chief minister Harish Rawat from Nainital seat
The Congress on Saturday night released its eighth list of 38 candidates for the upcoming parliamentary polls with its leader in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge being renominated from Karnataka's Gulbarga. The party has nominated former Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan to fight the polls from Nanded.
The eighth list contains party candidates from the states of Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Manipur and Maharashtra.
Senior Congress leader and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Digvijaya Singh will contest the Lok Sabha polls from the Bhopal seat.
With Monday being the last date for filing nominations in Uttarakhand, all eyes were fixed on the Congress to announce its candidates for the five seats going to polls on April 11. The BJP has already announced its candidates for the five seats on Thursday.
Congress has fielded former Uttarakhand chief minister Harish Rawat from Nainital constituency. It has fielded state Congress president Pritam Singh from Tehri Garhwal, Pradeep Tamta from Almora (SC) and Ambrish Kumar from Haridwar.
It will be a clash of heavyweights in Nainital with Mr Rawat against state BJP president Ajay Bhatt and Mr Singh contesting against sitting MP Mala Rajya Laxmi Shah in Tehri.
Though Harish Rawat had lost both the seats he had contested in the last assembly polls, he continues to be a seasoned and the most prominent Congress leader in the state, enjoying a connect with people at the grassroots.
The Congress on Saturday fielded veteran BJP leader BC Khanduri's son, Manish Khanduri, from Garhwal in its list of candidates for all the five Lok Sabha seats in Uttarakhand. Manish Khanduri had recently joined the Congress in the presence of party president Rahul Gandhi.
Former union ministers M Veerappa Moily and KM Muniyappa have been nominated as party candidates from Chikkballapur and Kollar Lok Sabha seats.
Meenakshi Natarajan, a close aide of Mr Gandhi, has been fielded from Mandaur constituency in Madhya Pradesh, while former party spokesperson Rashid Alvi will contest from Amroha in Uttar Pradesh.
The Congress has so far announced the names of its 218 candidates for the election to the 543-member Lok Sabha which will held in seven phases beginning on 11 April and ending on 19 May. The counting will take place on 23 May.